Mitsui Garden Hotel Shiodome Italia-gai — soak in the floor-24 public bath watching Tokyo Tower glow, every night for free

Picture this: you've spent a full day exploring Tokyo, you head back to the hotel, and instead of collapsing on the bed, you take the lift up to the 24th floor. There, you settle into a hot public bath in the classic Japanese sentō style — and through the windows, Tokyo Tower blazes red and orange against the night sky. Every single guest gets this experience, every night, at no extra charge, regardless of which room type they booked. This is why Mitsui Garden Hotel Shiodome Italia-gai — a 3-star hotel starting at ¥17,000 per night — holds a score of 8.6 from more than 3,800 reviews and keeps coming up in conversations among value-conscious travellers.

The hotel sits at 2-14-24 Higashi-Shinbashi in Minato ward, inside the Italia-gai quarter — a shopping street designed with a blend of Italian and Japanese character that makes simply stepping outside feel different from a standard Tokyo business district. From Shiodome Station the walk is just five minutes, and there's a sheltered underground passage connecting to the Shiodome complex so rainy days don't require getting wet. JR and Toei Asakusa Line riders using Hamamatsucho add another seven minutes on foot, putting Shimbashi, Ginza and Odaiba all within very easy reach.

On the rooms themselves — Mitsui Garden delivers the reliable, clean and well-organised Japan business hotel standard you'd expect from the brand. There is one critical thing to know up front: Moderate Double rooms facing east look towards Skytree, not Tokyo Tower. To wake up to the Tower, you need to specify 'Premier Tower View Twin', west-facing, floor 18 or above at the time of booking. The upgrade typically adds around ¥8,000 per night — still far cheaper than the luxury hotels closest to the Tower. For families, a 30-sqm Family Twin accommodating four guests is available at around ¥32,000.

Back to the floor-24 public bath — many guests say this single amenity delivers more value than almost anything else in the building. It's a sentō-style bath using heated water, not a natural mineral hot spring, but the Japanese bathing ritual is authentic and the experience travels home with you just the same. From the right vantage point on the 24th floor you can see Tokyo Tower and the Shiodome skyline lit up at night. No upgrade needed. No reservation required. Just go up.

On the Tower view from guest rooms — it's worth being direct: the Tower sits approximately 1.5 km to the west, which means it's clearly visible but not as large in the frame as it would be from closer hotels such as Prince Park Tower or EDITION. If you want the Tower filling your camera lens, this might not be the right choice. But if you want Tokyo Tower as part of your daily trip atmosphere, combined with a free floor-24 public bath and 3-star pricing, this is a balance that's hard to find elsewhere in the city.

Something guests mention less often but still value is the convenience of the Shiodome underground walkway — which connects the building without going outside, making rainy nights genuinely painless. And the Italia-gai setting gives the area around the hotel its own character: walking out front doesn't feel like being trapped in a pure business zone. Ginza is just a stop or two by train, while Odaiba is reachable directly on the Yurikamome from Shiodome.

To put it plainly — Mitsui Garden Hotel Shiodome Italia-gai is the strongest 3-star option for Tokyo Tower views, provided you specify the Premier Tower View room at booking and accept that the Tower is 1.5 km away. You get a free floor-24 public bath, a Tower view at night, a convenient Shiodome location, and pricing that undercuts luxury alternatives by more than 50%. Rooms from ¥17,000 per night.